REVIEW 106: BE-CAREFUL

Release date:	October 21, 2011
Director:	Chandrakant Singh
Cast:	Rajniesh Duggall, Zaid Shaikh, Tanisha Mukherjee, Rajpal Yadav, Johnny Lever, Asrani, Tiku Talsania, Shakti Kapoor

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from years of reporting on cinema, it is this: that getting a foot in the door in a film industry is a tough task. While subjecting myself to some incredibly bad films in 2011, the point was further driven home to me as I watched successful models and beauty pageant winners so desperate for an entry point that they’ve acted in films that must surely be mortifying to them. Former Miss India World Parvathy Omanakuttan made her debut this year in a horrendous film called United Six. Another former Miss India runner-up Sayali Bhagat has popped up repeatedly in some awful films though I must say she plumbed the very depths of poor quality when she starred in that offensively bad film titled Impatient Vivek. And then there’s this film I’m about to review.

Be-Careful stars Grasim Mr India 2003 winner and Mr International 1st runner-up Rajniesh Duggall, one of India’s most prominent models. Having seen him repeatedly on the catwalk, I can vouch for the fact that he’s handsome and has a very attractive personality. Is it really so important to you to be a movie star, Rajniesh, that you have humiliated yourself by acting in this disgusting film?

I’m sorry, dear readers, if that sounds harsh. You see, I can live with the fact that Be-Careful is a shoddy film with shabby sets, bad costumes and make-up, and just about everything going wrong on the production front. I can tolerate the fact that it’s a clichéd story about adulterous husbands. But I can’t forgive a film that expects me to have a sense of humour while it dishes out a rather extended joke about rape, unrelenting double entendre and crassness. And slapstick comedy is all very well, but why do some comedians think being repulsive and being funny are the same thing?

Rajniesh Duggall and Zaid Shaikh star in Be-Careful as philanderers Sameer Malhotra and Anand Kapoor a.k.a. Sam and Andy who take off for Thailand supposedly on a business trip, but in reality to bed the maximum women they can get while away from their wives’ vigilant eyes. Of course they underestimate their spouses who not just have spies keeping a watch on them, but land up themselves to keep their men in check.

AND GUESS WHO PLAYS SAM’S WIFE?! … Hold your breath … I bet you didn’t know she’s still doing films … Guess who? …. Whaddyaknow, it’s Tanisha Mukherjee! Yes, Kajol’s little sister is still around! Is the chance to act in a god-awful film like this one more important than your self-respect, Tanisha?

Which brings us back to the point we were discussing about strugglers in the industry. I can understand a rank outsider hoping that even the worst film could provide them with a platform that might get them noticed and so give them a break in a better film. But is it wise for actors to demean themselves to act in a film that’s not just aesthetically repugnant but morally reprehensible too?

Dear Rajniesh,

Your looks and personality are the only things that kept me from puking while I watched this film. With a better director, we know you are capable of better than Be-Careful! No visibility is worth the embarrassment of playing a perennially horny, completely unfunny creep in a film! Since you’re a top model, I assume money is not what compelled you to accept this role. So what did? Beware of films like Be-Careful! You deserve better!

Warm regards,

Anna

Rating (out of five): -50 stars

Footnote: http://tinyurl.com/cw2u56y - This trailer may help you partly understand my review. The Govinda hari bolo Gopala bolo song gave Be-Careful an interesting start. In between there was what seemed like a fun song that rhymed “biology” with “technology” but the sound quality was so poor that I couldn’t note down the lyrics for your benefit. The potshots at major Bollywood stars like Aamir Khan may have earned admiration in another film. But in this C-grade venture, they came across as a desperate attention-getting measure, nothing more. Incidentally, Chandrakant Singh also directed this year’s Om Puri-Aftab Shivdasani-starrer Bin Bulaye Baraati that I’d reviewed earlier on this blog - http://tinyurl.com/5sbg4rm

CBFC Rating:                       A

Language:                             Hindi

Rajniesh’s Photograph courtesy: http://www.rajnieshduggall.com/

Tanisha’s Photograph courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanisha

  

REVIEW 59: BIN BULAYE BARAATI

Release date:	June 17, 2011
Director:	Chandrakant Singh
Cast:	Om Puri, Aftab Shivdasani, Priyanka Kothari, Sanjay Mishra, Johnny Lever, Rati Agnihotri, Vijay Raaz

This is the kind of film Om Puri has been stuck doing for years and years in Bollywood, when there’s so much more this man can offer Indian cinema. Bin Bulaye Baraati is an over-the-top farce featuring multiple actors and a noisily told story. Puri plays a naïve policeman called Pralay Pratap Singh who gets himself and the police commissioner into endless trouble. A substantial portion at the start of BBB is devoted to Pralay, his boss and the boss’ wife (Rati Agnihotri) who speaks to Pralay in an inexplicably fussy, baby-like tone, thus leading her husband to believe that there’s an affair brewing. At this point, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Pralay is the leading man. But no sir, he pretty much disappears from the scene when the film shifts to the love story of his niece Shreya, played by Ram Gopal Varma’s one-time protégé Nisha a.k.a Priyanka Kothari. Shreya elopes with her boyfriend AD (Aftab Shivdasani). Along the way they chance upon a cache of jewels belonging to a dreaded dacoit (Gulshan Grover).

Now this dacoit is a nasty type who rolls his eyes and terrorises the people of Madhavgarh even as he manages the curtain of hair falling across his face. AD and Shreya land up in this village along with three con men (Sanjay Mishra, Rajpal Yadav, Vijay Raaz), who’ve joined them along the way, never mind how. The villagers mistake them for policemen, and suddenly the film becomes a remake of Sholay.

The real tragedy of BBB is that it probably did sound good at the concept level. A humorous modern-day take-off on one of the great classics of Hindi cinema holds out such promise. But the entire cast should have guessed they were headed for trouble from the moment they discovered that Jai and Veeru were being replaced by four men accompanied by Priyanka Kothari, an ‘actress’ who can’t act enough to even stand around effectively and watch others emote. Perhaps this was director Chandrakant Singh’s idea of a joke considering the audience and media outrage that erupted when Priyanka played a Basanti equivalent in Ramu’s Sholay interpretation, the insufferable RGV ki Aag.

For me, the clue that there’s something wrong with this film came very early on when several characters were shown chasing an obviously computer-generated rat through the commissioner’s house. Still, with less noise, less clichés, a sense of direction and some clearing up of the clutter, this film could have actually been a worthwhile slapstick comedy. In spite of myself, I did crack up during several scenes involving Sanjay Mishra and Vijay Raaz. Aftab Shivdasani tries hard to look dignified and hero-like in the midst of the mayhem, even when he becomes the object of alternate sexual lust courtesy Johnny Lever. Since it’s Lever we’re talking about, it goes without saying that there are various low-brow facial contortions involved here. Television soapdom’s Shweta Tiwari makes a late appearance as a village temptress and far far outshines Mallika Sherawat’s item song in BBB. By the way, Mallika’s number goes, “Munni bhi maani aur Sheela bhi maani, Shalu ke tthumke ki duniya deewani.” What lies!

Rating (out of five): *1/2

CBFC Rating:                       U/A with one word beeped out

Running time:                        135 Minutes

Language:                              Hindi

Photograph courtesy: http://www.binbulayebaraati.com/index.htm